Butler’s future with the Senators organization became clouded once Kaspars Daugavins inked a one-year, one-way deal. With the Dogman under contract, the Senators had 13 forwards that were on one-way deals. With the return of Peter Regin from a shoulder injury and the addition of Guillaume Latendresse via free agency, there was a logjam up front. And that goes without mentioning some of the organization’s best prospects who will show up to training camp vying for jobs. Considering the marketability and hype surrounding much ballyhooed prospects like Mika Zibanejad, Jakob Silfverberg and Mark Stone, something had to give to clear some room of these prospects.

Assuming that Butler is not claimed on waivers, his prospective buyout will be spread out over the course of the next two seasons. While the buyout will be one-third of his current salary — he will receive $200,000 in each of the next two seasons – Capgeek indicates that the actual cap hit on Butler’s buyout will be $50,000 in the first year and $200,000 in the second.

Some staunch Butler supporters – more supporters than I ever realized were out there — have voiced their concerns with giving up on a player who showed glimpses of being a competent scorer during the 2010/11 season.

While true that Ottawa’s giving up on a player without netting a draft pick or another asset in return, the organization does save itself $800,000 in real cash. Netting assets may not even be the biggest concern for the Senators. As one of the organizations that has had some success attracting some of the NCAA’s better unrestricted free agents, one has to wonder what kind of optics (if any?) will develop from Butler being put on waivers.

Of course, any negative optics could be overstated. The Justin Schultz scenario reinforced the belief that these collegiate free agents are typically looking to play for a competitive organization that can offer opportunity and dollars.